Malawi decimalized its currency in 1971, replacing the pound system with the kwacha and tambala. The shift to copper plated steel for this denomination in the 1990s reflected the same cost pressures driving central banks across sub-Saharan Africa to abandon solid bronze flans — raw copper prices had made small-denomination coinage economically irrational to produce in traditional alloys. The steel core also explains the magnetic property, a functional consequence rather than a deliberate design choice.
Malawi decimalized its currency in 1971, replacing the pound system with the kwacha and tambala. The shift to copper plated steel for this denomination in the 1990s reflected the same cost pressures driving central banks across sub-Saharan Africa to abandon solid bronze flans — raw copper prices had made small-denomination coinage economically irrational to produce in traditional alloys. The steel core also explains the magnetic property, a functional consequence rather than a deliberate design choice.